Horton Plaza Park, where downtown began in 1870, is getting a makeover - but not before looking at other urban plazas around the country, from New York City's Bryant Park to San Francisco's Union Square.

That review will take place at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday in two sessions at the former Robinson's-May department store at Fourth Avenue and Broadway, overlooking the plaza.

The $8 million, project by Westfield, owner of Horton Plaza shopping center, and the Centre City Development Corp., will involve demolishing the Robinson's building and expanding the small park to a full city square block of about 60,000 square feet.

Walker Macy, the Portland design firm that did that city's well-regarded Pioneer Park, will discuss that park and others and lay out possible visions of making Horton Plaza Park a vibrant people space in the middle of downtown San Diego.

CCDC spokeswoman Jennifer Davies said the public meeting will offer attendees a chance to ask questions but there will be no citizen-design work or review of any particular design.

That will come in June, she said, when Walker Macy will present three options and seek public comment.

The current schedule calls for the final design to be selected by late summer and construction to begin in early-2013 for completion at the end of that year.

In an unusual arrangement for a public park, Westfield will maintain and operate the park for 25 years, scheduling at least 200 events annually, and in return be excused from its current profit-sharing agreement with the city.

The park was established by downtown's founder, Alonzo E. Horton, at the time he opened his Horton House hotel in 1870 on the site of today's U.S. Grant Hotel north across Broadway.

Horton later sold the park to the city and it was redesigned by San Diego architect Irving J. Gill, who also designed the park's fountain, in time for the opening of the Grant in 1910.

When the shopping center opened in 1985, the park and fountain were restored to their 1910 look, but the space attracted vagrants and various steps were taken to discourage their presence.